PORTLAND, Ore. --- The No. 13 University of Portland men’s cross country team earned an at-large bid to participate in the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championship on Monday, November 22, as announced by the NCAA on Sunday.

The Pilots finished 4th in the NCAA West Regional Championships held this past Saturday in Springfield. The top two finishers, Oregon and Stanford, each earned automatic bids to advance to the National Championship race.

A total of four teams from the west region will run in the National Championship race with California joining Oregon, Stanford, and Portland.

The NCAA Championship will be held in Terre Haute, Ind. and will take place at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center.

Actually, it's a minor miracle the team even made it to nationals with all the injuries. If there are no improvements in the injury status of the team, a top-15 finish would be pretty impressive. It's too bad as the Willamette meet showed what the potential of a healthy team would have been.